I live in a land called Mid-America. Here, we want less government involvement in our lives. And we're mostly non-elite, working middle-class. "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The break with reality is complete. According to our esteemed Vice President, Joe Biden:

“We’re going to go bankrupt as a nation,” Biden said.

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’” Biden said. “The answer is yes, that's what I’m telling you.”

That should work, right?

I guess I'd better to spend at least twice what I bring in -- that way I won't go bankrupt either. That seems to be the current administration's plan, anyway.

And we've got 42 months left of this insanity? But have no fear. About once every 20 years, we have to give the liberals a chance to see if their programs will work. They never do, but they keep trying.

Besides, it's not the results of their programs; it's the intention. Screw the results -- we had good intentions.

Problem this time is that Obama and Pelosi are trying to ram this in quick before anyone really knows what going on. The damage, if they succeed, will be great.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Have you been paying attention to what the Democrats are now doing? Why have they been cramming new legislation through the system so fast that no one precisely knows what is being enacted into law?

First, the left-wing of the Democrat party is fully in charge. They now -- especially with the recession -- have the opportunity to covert the United States to a socialist model. But they know they must do it quickly before the majority of Americans realize what they are doing. Once the public does wake up, the chances are great the Democrats will lose power. And the Dems know it. But if they can get enough people dependent upon the teat of government handouts, watch out...

What exactly does the left-wing so highly desire, besides power? Victor Davis Hanson puts it better than I can come up with on a coffee break:

Soon we will all end up after each April 15 making about the same, driving the same sort of cars and using the same sort of mass transit, living in about the same sorts of houses, and having about the same sorts of “‘they’ will take care of it for me” philosophies — all overseen by brilliant, but highly ranked and exempt Platonic Guardians who suffer on our behalf as they jet and limo at breakneck speed ensuring our welfare.

If this is the kind of European-type socialism that you want, then you'll be happy. I'll bet the majority of Americans do not.

Besides, the economic model will create a endless recession. Instead of just a few of us being poor, all of us will be poor.

Hanson comes to the same conclusion I have:

This recovery cannot work, other than a brief spurt that results from trillions in printed money, because we are rewarding unproductive areas of the economy (federal money for more wind farms, federal hurdles for pumping more known natural gas or nuclear power construction; more of the community-organizing model, less of the productive small business model) and punishing the engines of the economy.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi released a statement in response to the 28-year high in unemployment, which stood at 9.5 percent in June. Part of the statement reads:

Today's unemployment numbers are another reminder of the years of failure to invest in making Americans the most highly educated and innovative workforce in the world -- and years of delay on affordable health care and the clean energy jobs and industries that will sustain our economy for years to come.

Years of failure to invest in American education? We have spent trillions upon trillions of dollars for education, yet our schools have failed us, mostly because of liberal administrators and teachers corrupting what once was a fine education system.

Recently, the Goldwater Institute tested a group of high school seniors with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services exam. Only 3.5 percent of students tested who attend public schools passed. Nearly 98 percent of our high school kids can't pass this test, yet we require our new citizens to pass it.

Their report also states:

...public schools are not in fact equipping students with an understanding of civics. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) administered a grade-level-appropriate civic knowledge exam to a nationally representative sample of 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-graders in 2006. The percentages of students scoring at the proficient level or above: 25 percent of 4th graders, 24 percent of 8th graders, and 32 percent of 12th graders.

Legend has it that a woman asked Benjamin Franklin, leaving the Constitutional Convention, what sort of government had been created. “A Republic, if you can keep it,” Franklin replied. A major justification for supporting a system of public schools has long been the promotion of a general civic knowledge necessary for a well informed citizenry.

According to Pelosi, we have failed to invest, but the real root of the problem is what is being taught. While our heath care system is one of the worlds best -- it is a free market system -- our schools are one of the world's worst -- it is mostly government-run system.

So Ms. Speaker, not only do you and your party not understand what makes our educational system work, you do not have a clue on how to get us out of this near-depression. You are delusional on the fact that liberal policies do not work, have not worked, and never will work. Yet, you keep pushing them down our throats, without debate, and have bankrupted the mightiest economy the world has ever known.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

First he claimed that most Americans want a government-sponsored health care system. Now, Joe Conasan, who writes for the liberal rag New York Observer, says:

As a matter of fact, America's current health care system wastes considerably more than a trillion dollars every year. We know that because countries such as France, Germany, Japan and Finland, with comparable standards of living to ours, spend roughly half what the United States spends annually on health care per citizen, while covering everyone and achieving better results.

Wait one minute. While it is true that the United States spends more on health care, both measured as per capita and as a percentage of GDP, to claim we get worse results is absurd.

After adjusting country data, from the 1990s, for differences in both age and death rates in the general population, Americans were found to have the best chance of survival for two of the five cancers that the reasearchers considered: breast cancer in women and prostate cancer. (Cuba had impressive survival rates, but these were probably over-estimated, say researchers). Europe lags behind America, with wide differences in survival rates, ranging from 10% for breast cancer to 34% for prostate cancer. Money appears to be an important factor: America spends a greater proportion of national income on health than the other countries.

Researchers found that USA has the best score with 5 years of survival rate for breast cancer at 83.9% and prostate cancer at 91.9%. Japan scores the best for colon cancer at 63% and rectal cancer at 58.2% in men. Women living in France have the highest rates for colon and rectal cancers at 60.1% and 63.9% respectively.

I could go on, but it's so easy for anyone to look up the facts (unless you're only looking for "facts" that back up your position). You may find that with other conditions, the results may be slighly different, but the bottom line for me -- and a lot of other people -- is that if I get injured or sick, I'm in the right country.

I have found in my own research that liberals tend to ignore facts that disagree with their position more than conservatives.

While far from perfect, the United States has the best health care system in the world.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Let's do some fear-mongering, something the liberals have accused conservatives for years (we used fear about terrorism, which is an actual event).

Now, that these same critics are in power, they are using fear to ram countless new laws and regulations which far more stiffle our civil liberties than any conservative could ever dream up. Fear is now not directed against terrorism (other contingency operations), but the climate.

A 1,500-page bill to tax, regulate and penalize all U.S. hydrocarbon energy use to "save the planet" from climate Armageddon has passed the House 219-212 despite the fact that not one member read it.

No one read it, yet they voted on it. In fact, the bill wasn't even on the floor, in the well, which is traditionally how it's done.

Reminds me of the last "stimulus" bill, which was not read by most before they voted on it.

Voting on a bill that will affect not only millions of Americans, but countless millions around the world, before you have read, studied and debated it -- this is insanity, not progress.

But as Investors Business Daily concludes at one point: "It may be the most flagrant attempted con job in U.S. history."

Here is another example of how Democrats do business, thanks to the Examiner:

Apparently House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev) are so afraid of a public backlash against the cost of the health care reform package that they don't want voters to see it. Along with Obama's promise of transparency, the two politicians think they can get away with anything because of having a majority in Congress. Their arrogance and lack of respect for American citizens has no bounds.